I ran 8 whole miles last night, and it went very well. The only issue is that it took half the night to do it! I broke the 13:00 min/mile barrier for the first time last night too! My official pace was 12:52/mile for the whole run, but that should really be like 12:59 because I took off and "stretched my legs" for the last 1/4 mile at a 9:15 pace so that brought it way down.
8 miles is the furthest I have ever run by myself too. Isn't that sad? I'm proud of myself for sticking it out yesterday though. At the start I was not the least bit excited about the run and had no idea how far I was going to actually go. We had our work Christmas lunch a few hours earlier and I stuffed my face, to say the least. But by about 2 miles into the run I was good to go and kept right at same pace the entire run. I guess I'm learning some of the "benefit" or whatever of HR training - when they say "easy," they really do mean easy. I think I could run forever in zone 2, but I guess most people could and just don't know it. Maybe that is why the 8 last night by myself wasn't that bad - because it was not that physically challenging. I usually look to other people to keep my mind off the pain when I'm doing long runs, but last night there really wasn't any pain to worry about!
I am still content at my little slow pace right now, but I hope it really does all come together like it is supposed to and that eventually I'm back to where I was, pace-wise, before I got so sick. If nothing else, it has taught me that I'm not supposed to be doing long runs at 180-190 bpm. I mean, I guess we all already knew that, but the more reading I have done about all of it has further reiterated how bad it is for me to be running long at that high of a HR.
I'm shooting for 10 on Saturday morning and 12 the Saturday after Christmas. If all that goes ok, I will feel pretty good about running the half in Houston on Jan 18. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for sure...
8 miles is the furthest I have ever run by myself too. Isn't that sad? I'm proud of myself for sticking it out yesterday though. At the start I was not the least bit excited about the run and had no idea how far I was going to actually go. We had our work Christmas lunch a few hours earlier and I stuffed my face, to say the least. But by about 2 miles into the run I was good to go and kept right at same pace the entire run. I guess I'm learning some of the "benefit" or whatever of HR training - when they say "easy," they really do mean easy. I think I could run forever in zone 2, but I guess most people could and just don't know it. Maybe that is why the 8 last night by myself wasn't that bad - because it was not that physically challenging. I usually look to other people to keep my mind off the pain when I'm doing long runs, but last night there really wasn't any pain to worry about!
I am still content at my little slow pace right now, but I hope it really does all come together like it is supposed to and that eventually I'm back to where I was, pace-wise, before I got so sick. If nothing else, it has taught me that I'm not supposed to be doing long runs at 180-190 bpm. I mean, I guess we all already knew that, but the more reading I have done about all of it has further reiterated how bad it is for me to be running long at that high of a HR.
I'm shooting for 10 on Saturday morning and 12 the Saturday after Christmas. If all that goes ok, I will feel pretty good about running the half in Houston on Jan 18. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for sure...
Comments